EDC
Source: Environmental Defense Center
California advocates are celebrating today’s announcement from the Biden administration to halt oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters. Advocates with the Protect the Pacific Coalition cite the need to protect the U.S. coastal economy from the risks of oil spills, the growing urgency of addressing the climate crisis, and the potential for healthy oceans to serve as a powerful climate solution.
Trump’s initial proposal from January 2018 would have opened California, Oregon and Washington to new offshore oil and gas leases for the first time in more than 30 years, which sparked a bipartisan wave of opposition across the region and around the country.
“Clean beaches and a healthy ocean are critical drivers of our coastal economies, supporting over 2.6 million jobs and generating roughly $180 billion in GDP,” said Vipe Desai, founding member of the Business Alliance for Protecting the Pacific Coast (BAPPC). “Coastal businesses are already reeling from the pandemic and need reassurances that we won’t be dealing with oil spills in the future. The only way to guarantee that is to put the Trump vision for our coasts behind us, and move forward with no new leasing.”
BAPPC represents a broad range of industries–technology, tourism, seafood, real estate, and local chambers of commerce, among others–united in a shared belief that a healthy coast is vital to their bottom lines, as well as the lifestyles of their customers and staff. They recently joined their counterparts on the Atlantic Coast in a letter to the Biden administration about the importance of ending offshore drilling and advancing renewable energy.
Business leaders are among a diverse group of California stakeholders including tribal and indigenous-led organizations, environmental advocates, scientists, and coastal residents who have rallied together to protect the coast from offshore drilling.
“As the original stewards and caretakers of these lands and waters, we are absolutely against drilling in our coastal waters, and oppose the proposed sale of leases off the coast of our traditional and unceded homelands,” said Maura Sullivan, Coastal Band of the Chumash Nation, Ocean Protectors Program Director, Sacred Places Institute for Indigenous Peoples. “The drilling that is there is a constant threat and reminder that colonization is an ongoing event for California coastal Native nations. The taking of oil is a violent act. The extraction and movement of oil to process is dangerous for us and our children. We refuse to stand by as the ongoing violence of the fossil fuel industry tries to continue to profit off our last wild and healthy sacred places.”
States and local governments have said they do not want offshore drilling. For example, California lawmakers passed legislation (SB 834 and AB 1775), banning the development of new pipelines, platforms, and other infrastructure within state waters needed to bring new offshore oil and gas to shore to be processed.
“We need to say no to more offshore drilling and make the transition to renewable energy today,” said Linda Krop, Chief Counsel of the Environmental Defense Center, which has fought offshore oil development since its founding after the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. “Californians don’t want more oil drilling off our coast. In addition to the risks of oil spills we cannot take any action that will exacerbate climate change.”
Almost 100 cities and counties across California, representing more than half of the state’s population, have taken action to publicly oppose fossil fuel development in the Pacific. Polling data shows that a majority of voters in California are opposed to offshore drilling.
The Pacific Coast has been closed to new drilling for decades, with the last federal lease sales taking place in 1984. According to the National Ocean Economics Program, tourism, recreation and fishing along California’s coast generate over $23.7 billion dollars a year and support over 429,000 jobs in hotels, restaurants, gas stations, tackle shops, charter boats, and other local businesses.
He’s killing jobs faster then Trump made them!
During trump’s time in office, the US lost 3.9 million jobs.
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/10/trumps-numbers-preelection-update/
Undoing the lunacy of the Trump error years will take time, but it will be a continuing pleasure to expunge this seditious traitor from our body politic. Any dissenters out there? Please—hit me up.
President Trump created 6.6 Million jobs in the first Three years.
4.4 % more then Obama. Then we where sent the China Virus!
BDM facts don’t matter to several here but thank you for sharing. (i.e. “seditious traitor”)
Time for us to live smarter:
https://time.com/5930093/amsterdam-doughnut-economics/
Pax, You say down. I say up. We could never agree.
Actually, it was the trumper’s non-response to the pandemic that furthered his demolition of the economic powerhouse that President Obama bequeathed him. Historically, if you follow the data, the economy does better under Democratic administrations, and stagnates under the Republicons.
Non response?
By what contorted definition is trump not a seditious traitor?
Unlike the contortions used to define a bunch of hooligans’ lead by a guy in furs and a Viking helmet as an “insurrection”?
Fact check: True.
A President who Cancelled the crazy multi Billion dollar Iran “deal”, Told OPEC to pound sand, Renegotiated NAFTA , Renegotiated Chinese Tariffs, Opened up the Keystone project, Got us out of the one sided and penalizing Kyoto Treaty (meanwhile, India, Russia and China continue to be MASS polluters), Insisted that NATO countries pay their fair share for defense, Gave the U.S. Border Patrol the tools they needed to protect our open/pourous borders and was an @ss to the mainstream politicians, media and didn’t play by the Swamps rules…. Now we are back to an apologetic “leader” who will soon be making those that are considered the “working poor” the opportunity to pay more than $5 a gallon for the gas they put in their vehicles to commute to work / jobs…. Nice.
You do realize that tariffs are paid by the American consumer, don’t you? And trump was a swampier creature than the late, great Mary Lou. Your other talking points are equally steeped in alt-reality propaganda – true doublespeak.
To even start to reflect the true costs to society, in terms of its harmful effects, gasoline should at a minimum be priced at about $10 per gallon.
Nothing you said Coastwatch was steeped in alt-reality propaganda – true doublespeak. I’m not ever really sure what that means.
Trump and his supporters are fine ruining the world as long as they’re on top when we all go down in flames.
What about the harmful effects of solar panels covering the desert and displacing animals and plants.
Is that ok?
Okay, I apologize for calling it a Viking helmet.
Do your research. I have.
@BDM: I work in renewable energy. I’ve done my research and do it every day. Where did you get your information?
BDM – hold on, you forgot the most important drawback – the sounds from windmills cause cancer.
Dirty oil (& coal) are the past and the sooner you all get on board with a cleaner future for our entire planet the less time you will have for senseless arguing online and the more time you will have to get out in nature and enjoy life 🙂 PEACE
If we can harness wind and solar power we could make a huge impact! Also, what about the energy the ocean and its waves creates? Going green is good for the world and helps the future people. Seems like common sense!
Water(dams) do destroy the environment. Solar and wind are part of the solution, not THE solution.
During trump’s time in office, the US lost 3.9 million jobs.
https://www.factcheck.org/2020/10/trumps-numbers-preelection-update/
coast. nice info copied from some right wing media outlet, based on nothing more than words from a failed president. the terminology and ideology that you are regurgitating on this thread, is just that…political hyperbole and rhetoric.
BDM….seriously? That is, by far, the dumbest thing i’ve heard all year. fact.
@BDM 1868: the great thing about solar panels is they do NOT “cover the desert.” Due to the energy transmission technology, they solar “farms” can only be certain size. That means, all the big animals just have something in their way, not getting displaced. The little animals can still exist underneath and between them (they don’t lie flat on the surface). Go out and check one out sometime. They’re amazing, but not as awesome as those giant wind turbines!
Trumpists need to check their facts before continue the same misinformation. We’re just tired of hearing it. Check the internet, it is easy, according to Forbes magazine, “Obama’s Last Three Years Of Job Growth All Beat Trump’s Best Year.” And read the article. Trump was the biggest loser.
VOR: Enough misinformation. According to the FBI, these clowns were avid Trump supporters egged on by his big lie that the election was stolen. Hooligans they were, and breaking into the capital and threatening elected officials in order to stop the final election process of Joe Biden is an insurrection.
VOICE OF TREASON – Gaslit? Dude, I was watching it unfold. They went in there violently with the clear intent of stopping the vote and harming lawmakers. Some may have been just being stupid and following the crowd, but most were there to cause harm in their “fight” to “save their country” from a “fraudulent election.” The SOLE reason they were there was to disrupt the process, our DEMOCRACY. They went to rob us of our choice. Explain the para military guys and gals with zip ties and bulletproof vests? Just “hooligans” to mess around and take silly photos in the Capitol? Dude, stop defending and excusing traitors!
VOICE OF TREASON – oops, missed something. At no point did any BLM mob scream in unison, WHILE attacking the Capitol of the United States, “Hang Mike Pence” after having erected a gallows outside, while also searching for Nancy Pelosi, all fueled by a violent and treasonous conspiracy theory for which many have professed they would die for. No, NOT the same as people rioting out of anger and frustration that people are still treated disparately based solely on the color of their skin.
To compare the fight for racial equality with a mass temper tantrum based on verifiable lies from a sitting president is wrong and you KNOW it.
Zero, your reply is the most offensive thing I have read. The environmental impacts to the desert environment are undeniable and real. Rooftop solar would be way less intrusive but big corporations won’t benefit.
VOR try a little common sense for once. First, we are a net exporter. Second, we don’t need to pump oil off the coast, there’s plenty available under dry land and when you have a pipeline break on dry land it’s a LOT easier to contain and clean it up than if you have a spill in the ocean. Seriously, try thinking once in a while
A mob of neo-nazis, white supremacists, and Q-tards defiled our Democracy. VOR, you’re trying to explain away and justify a violent cult.
Of course they believed it, Q-tard. Trust this–the next year or two will bring unprecedented domestic terrorism from the radical right wing of white supremacists, neo-nazis, and cultists. There will be more blood In the streets and apologists like you are enabling these lunatics
To sum up your philosophy–changing things is hard. So why bother, let’ just wait until there’s not enough oil left to fuel our current manufacturing and energy models and then, uhhhhhh, we can, uhhhhhhh, I dunno–oh, wait, I do know! We get to go to war for the last drops!
Whatever kind of hat/helmet he was wearing (pretty sure it had horns), you are all gaslit big time if you think if you think the people who went into capital were going to overthrow anything. You know the capital building isn’t a game of king of the hill, whoever is standing behind the podium (or takes the podium) doesn’t get to rule the USA? Sac, clearly most were just being stupid and following the crowd (they were let in by the police), it was a small fraction who came with intent for violence. You may excuse violence, riots, looting, destruction if you approve the cause, I think there is no excuse for it no matter your affiliations. There is always a better way.
Alex, speaking of common sense, do you know why we are a net exporter? If we stop drilling our own oil, where do you think it will come from?
COASTWATCH – change is hard, I know, but we can’t continue consuming and polluting the way we do now. It’s not sustainable. Renewable energy IS sustainable. That means, it will never run out. Coal will, as well as continue to pollute our air and water. It’s very simple. We have to change, might as well get used to and quit kicking and screaming.
VOICE OF TREASON – yes, it had horns, but it was not a viking helmet. It was modeled after Native American headdresses with bison skins. Vikings didn’t wear bison skins. Come on, get it straight!